HomeMoviesStar WarsHypable Reader Opinion: Why Disney making new ‘Star Wars’ films is a good thing

In the twelve hours since news of Disney purchasing Lucasfilm broke, I’ve heard a lot of negative feedback with regards to the new Star Wars films being made. I’ve heard a lot of things like “Hasn’t it been desecrated enough? When will it end?!?!” and “Why God why must they continue to destroy my childhood?!”

The way I see it, Disney is going into this deal with the mindset of “Ok, let’s save Star Wars.” Because, let’s be real here, it needs to be saved. In 1999, George Lucas took everything that was awesome about Star Wars, made a list, and said to himself, “Ok we don’t need any of this.” The interesting intricate story, well written fleshed out characters, and adventurous atmosphere of the original three movies were nowhere to be found in the prequels. It’s almost as if they were made by a different person. What a lot of people don’t realize is, they kind of were.

In 1977, when George Lucas was making A New Hope he was 33 years old and had only made two movies. Fox Studios was not about to let him make this huge production and allow him complete creative control. The studio reigned in some of his ideas and that really did shape Star Wars into what it was. As a writer and a director Lucas really is someone who shouldn’t be allowed to do whatever he wants because, and the proof speaks for itself, he has a lot of bad ideas. He was going to make Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to be about a Haunted Castle, but Spielberg wouldn’t let him because he knew that was a stupid idea. Then, when you look at Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Lucas didn’t really have anything to do creatively with either of those movies. He stepped back and produced while he allowed others to write and direct.

Fast forward to 1999, George Lucas is directing not only his his first Star Wars film since 1977, but his first film in general since 1977. The difference is now; he’s been attributed with creating the Star Wars Trilogy; which, at the time, was the highest grossing film franchise ever. So who was Fox Studios to step in and tell him how to make his movies? Lucas had made them so much money, why should they step in and hinder his creative process? So they didn’t. Now here was George Lucas stepping back into a franchise which hadn’t really been his for over twenty years, and trying to figure out what was what again.

The finished product we wound up with was a set of three truly awful movies that make Oscar winning and nominated actors (Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, Natalie Portman) look like some of the worst actors ever. I really think that what happened was somewhere along the line, he forgot how to make movies. You can really see how blatantly this is the case simply by pulling any scene out of the prequels and looking at, not only the writing and acting, but also even the staging of the shots, as well as the exorbitant use of CGI. It’s “How Not to Make Movies 101 with George Lucas.” Through this he was able to make ridiculous amounts of money, and make a lot of men living in their mother’s basements very very unhappy.

Now there is talk of a seventh, a further continuation of the Star Wars Saga. This is different though, George Lucas is stepping aside, he is allowing someone else to take his franchise and continue it without him. I don’t know why people aren’t seeing the opportunity here. If this franchise was to be given to someone who is not only an adept filmmaker, but also someone who loves Star Wars, we could be seeing the best Star Wars movie since the Empire struck back. I know people are turned off by the fact that Disney is the company that now owns the rights, worried that it’s going to be even more kid-friendly than it was in the prequels, and that it’s going to be lame. To those people all I have to say is go watch The Avengers. Disney bought Marvel and that relationship seems to be working out just fine for all parties involved. All Disney’s involvement is going to mean is a virtually unlimited budget and endorsements, as well as a shelf in the Disney Store.

Personally, I staunchly believe that the perfect candidate to direct this new movie would be J.J. Abrams, only because of how well he handled Star Trek. He took a series that was dead, and made it accessible to everyone, have it get great reviews, and it made a lot of money to boot. Handing the reigns of Star Wars over to him would be the equivalent of handing Marvel over to Joss Whedon, and we all know how well that worked out.

I really do think this is something to be looked at positively. It means that our last memories of Star Wars aren’t going to involve Hayden Christiansen, and if the movie sucks… then at least George Lucas will have someone to share the blame with.

I still think is bad news. The probability of this going right is almost null. Call it pessimism but when a company tries to milk something… It gets destroyed…

http://forgiveyourmind.tumblr.com/ Tariq

Disney milked Toy Story 3 and it was FANTASTIC. So I think we should give them another chance.

Jason

Well, Pixar was the cow, so of course that turned out awesome.

Jason

Disney and China- slowly taking over the world.

Jimmy Rose

Agree. Two thumbs up. High five it. You got it.

Melusine

This, a million times this, I’m so glad I’m not the only one thinking this. Also, I think my only complaint with J.J. Abrams would have to be the lens flare. >.>

stargazer

And, as much as I loved Star Trek, if he did what he did there to Star Wars and rebooted the universe, that would be awful. But if he stayed away from alternate realities, it’d be awesome.

Josiah

Obviously Abrams is a smart enough filmmaker to realize that the look and feel of the films would have to be in the same vein as the previous ones. He wouldn’t use lens flair or ideas he’s already done. In my opinion he’s the modern successor to Spielberg and would make some really fantastic Star Wars films.

http://twitter.com/akacj7 Caroline J.

THANK YOU. spot on. this needs to be out of george lucas’ hands to fulfill it’s potential. which it has butt loads of.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002255052909 Remy Quist

I’d love to see J.J. Abrams make it, I really loved the last Star Trek movie!

Disney ain’t give a fuck about saving no Star Wars. Disney wants to milk a shitload of money off this bitch. Lucas is still dick riding this whole thing, too, so it’s not like it’ll be good or whatever.

SomeGuy

I don’t think you understand how you “milk a shitload of money off [a] bitch.” I’ll give you a hint: It’s not by taking a franchise that people have very little faith in to begin with and making it worse.

Vajackster

How about prequel numbers 2 and 3?

Carilyn

Point 1. Honestly, there were some good points to the prequels. Overall lackluster, I’ll admit, but portraying the steps towards the fall of a republic, showing some really badass moments for Yoda and R2 that couldn’t have been done, technologically, in 70s-80s — that was pretty cool. But yeah, overall lackluster.

Point 2. Disney makes good films. Say what you want about their marketing, but Disney makes good films. And it isn’t as if, as pointed out in the second cited article, there was never a relationship there before. This is just the next level.

Point 3. I liked how the author pointed out in the article how Lucas being restrained and edited created his best work, took his best ideas and refined them. That, I feel, is a big part of what makes good ideas into great products — not unrestrained creativity, but creativity paired with a critical eye to see what could be improved.

Point 4. A haunted castle? Really? I never knew that. Glad that didn’t pan out, because the grail symbolism was what made the movie great.

kid friendly prequels?
The prequel was the only one with a 12 certificate and that’s the highest star wars has ever been.
What you say is good though.

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